No time like the past as genre-busting history buff Ellroy The present and everything it stands for "holds no sway" for American crime author and essayist James Ellroy, who has styled himself as the "demon dog of American crime fiction" on the back of his hugely successful 'The L.A. Quartet' and 'Underworld USA Trilogy' novels. Ellroy - who has no computer and writes his books by hand - tells AFP his merging of "the crime novel, the historical novel, the political novel" means he has created a new genre. At 71 years old, he plans to add to add "two more" to his L.A. Quartet series and says he could attempt the "second Underworld USA trilogy". IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES